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| So, this is season over and what have done (to misquote John Lennon) ?
For me, there has been a massive upturn in the enjoyment of going to a matchday, the atmosphere around the place and the impending return of European football. These are all massive plus points after the Dinosaur Years of Mourinho and Conte. They can’t help themselves in criticising the club after their failures here when they are serial winners, but, to be fair, some of that might have been true, so what has the club done to address those weaknesses ? The recruitment has been very good on the whole as Ange Postecoglou has swept the decks to change personnel and freshen things up. The Pochettino years brought great football and massive progress, but with all “golden generations”, when there is no success, then the Beatles have to be broken up. Vicario is more than an adequate replacement for Hugo, who had been a great servant for the club and Guglielmo has proved himself a worthy successor to slip into Lloris’ gloves. Ange has to work out how to protect Vicario from the intimidation he was getting, as it may rear it’s ugly head again in the future. Radu Dragusin proved a good guard for Vic when he played at the end of the season, but when he’s not there, someone has to do the same job. With many clubs relying on set-pieces for goals, it will be an important key to reducing the number of goals we concede. For some goalkeepers, a starting position further back from the centre of the goal gives them the opportunity to have a run at the ball coming in from corners and while you don’t want to surround him with our own players, they need to be able to attack the ball as it comes in (obviously from the correct angle) to get it away. Other than that, I lost count of the number of goals he stopped going in and in narrow wins, his saves were vital in the gathering of points. The afore-mentioned Dragusin didn’t get a lot of action, but he does look a real prospect, being calm on the ball and physically strong. His inclusion pushed Micky van de Ven out to left back, which wasn’t the position planned for him when he was brought in last summer, but he has been more than outstanding in both central and left slots. A crowd favourite as he slips seamlessly into the Spurs defence and Rafa van der Vaart’s song, he’s been another who has shone this season. With Eric Dier’s departure, he was just what was needed, adding height and the ability to bring the ball out … and score some goals too. Having Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie on the flanks added aggression to our pressing, leading to a number of goals by wining the ball high up the pitch, but also in their ability to assist and score too. Their defensive sensibilities are also being honed, with their speed a useful asset in counter-attacks. Both players are strong and being internationals have good experience Bringing in James Maddison paid immediate dividends, contributing in the attack, but following his injury, he failed to reproduce that level of performance and perhaps wasn’t alone, with Dejan Kulusevski also not hitting the highs he did early in the season. Brennan Johnson looked an odd signing, as to where he would fit in, but he has grown in confidence and chipped with with goals and assists to show that he is going to be a useful player to have as he can deliver when required. Unfortunately, after grabbing his first Spurs goal at Brighton, Alejo Veliz was sent out on a season long loan to Sevilla that wasn’t very useful for him. The manager rarely picked him and what was supposed to be a chance to get game-time, but left him and the club frustrated that it didn’t happen. What must be remembered is that this is the first season for much of the group and that they are all young players. The chance for this squad to develop and grow is no doubt among the thoughts of the Spurs hierarchy as they look to add to it in the summer. There will be more departures, with the media pushing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as the favourite to move on. Whether this is true, he has stayed ultimately professional in his approach when called on (mainly from the bench), but a lot of those substitute appearances have earned us points, as his reputation of a player who can see out games grew with each success. A much under-rated player who will be missed if he should leave. The players who have been out on loan are mostly tipped to move on. Troy Parrott personally had a very successful season at Excelsior in Holland, even though his contributions couldn’t prevent them being relegated through the play-offs, so discussions with the club will determine his future after a good run in the side obviously produced some consistent goal-scoring. Over in Italy, another young player had a similarly successful season as Djed Spence impressed at Genoa. Looking as though he doesn’t feature in Ange’s plans, the interest from the Serie A club will probably see him depart, with Sergio Reguilon likely to join him on the way out, despite decent loan spells at Man U and Brentford. As Tanguy Ndombele’s disappointing time as a Spurs player comes to an end with his contract set to be cancelled, fellow midfielder Giovani Lo Celso might be joining in through the out door at the THS. Stories saying he isn’t keen on leaving are matched with those that say he is desperate to get away and being a current Argentina international shouldn’t harm those chances. Question marks remain over goalkeepers Fraser Forster and Alfie Whiteman following Brandon Austin’s new five-year deal and that also applies to Brazilians Emerson Royal and Richarlison. The striker had a hot streak, where he was scoring nearly every game after over-coming mental health and injury set-backs, but the stories all claim that a big bid would be accepted, while in contrast a reasonable fee has been set for Royal to find an interested buyer. Winger Bryan Gil’s limited playing time probably spells out that both parties would accept it is not going to work out at Tottenham and a move would help him continue his career, while Spurs will get a bit of their money back. There have been brief flickers of what he might be able to do, but his physique isn’t really suited to the Premier League, so he will probably return to Spain where he honed his trade. Joe Rodon is another who has probably suffered by the turnover in managers over the last few years, but his latest loan at Leeds has made them keen to sign him, even though they didn’t win promotion and if not them, then other similar clubs will view him as a solid signing. Conversely, Ashley Phillips had a good half season with Plymouth and may return to continue his development, with Alfie Devine’s time there a little mixed after a good first half of the season with Port Vale. With Wayne Rooney taking over and looking to base the side on youth, they might get a lot of games at Home Park if they return next season. The obligatory end of season debuts for young players – this time the much feted Mikey Moore, Jamie Donley and Tyrese Hall, saw them have a few minutes here and there, to get used to the Premier League and was good to see, with the next step in his development being interesting. Will they go on loan or will he be put into the first-team squad for 2024-25 ? With Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergwall arriving and already being touted as being thrust into the senior squad, it will be a delicate decision with players who Levy and the fans want to see progress through the ranks, but they have to be ready for it. Among others who excelled at the U21 and U18 levels were Jude Soonsup-Bell, Will Lankshear, Alfie Dorrington, Leo Black, Luca Gunter, Yago Santiago, Yusuf Akhamrich and Archie Baptiste, showing that there may be more coming through the Academy system in the future. Various issues deprived us of players during the season, with injuries hitting particularly hard and maybe that was why Ange was talking about squad depth. He also mentioned the mentality surrounding the Mancashter City match, where lots of Spurs fans would have been happy to lose if it meant that the title went to South London. Well, it isn’t the first time this has happened, as the title went to Mancashter United in 1999 when they beat us at Old Trafford thus depriving Woolwich Wanderers a double. Les Ferdinand had put Tottenham into an early lead, much to the dismay of many Spurs supporters, but United came back to win 2-1 and were crowned champions. Back down South, Gooners had been singing “Come On You Spurs”. I think that the way it was put across that fans wanting their own team to lose might have been confined to the minority, with many people thinking that if we did lose, it would have the benefit of schadenfreude probably being more like the feeling of the majority. It is easy to see why he got angry, as the outcome might have reflected badly on him, but the team put in a really good performance and the 2-0 score-line flattered City on the night, but it was always going to be a hard task as they have the experience of maintaining momentum in their run-in to the season’s end. Now that VAR is here to stay, despite the fact that all the clubs moans about it although they have voted to keep it, there are a few other refereeing issues that I have gripes with. I’m still a little confused about the enforcement surrounding players celebrating goals. Pape Matar Sarr was booked for going into the Spurs fans in the South Stand after he scored and received a booking for it. When Chong scored in the Luton match at the THS, he ran to the South-East corner of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Tottenham fans. Then Mpanzu came over to do the same. Now, is a player celebrating with his own fans, even if he goes into the crowd more inciting than an away player intentionally moving to an area where opposing fans are located to rile them ? Vardy is a prime example of a player who does this and constantly gets away with it and do you remember Dier getting booked at Goonbury for celebrating at their end, but nothing done when Henry ran the length of the pitch to slide in front of the Tottenham fans a few years before ? And the time taken to actually celebrate a goal is getting longer by the season. Where teams take 1-2 minutes to get ready for the restart when they are winning, but then grab the ball out of the net and run back to the centre circle when they are losing in the same match should earn cautions from the ref, who often fails to add on the actual playing time lost. And another thing that irks me is that I still don’t get this pointing at the watch that referees do in a weak attempt to get players to hurry up and stop time-wasting. Surely, the way to prevent it and it always has been, is to book players early in the match for time-wasting, so that they can’t risk a second yellow card, rather than try to add a little time at the end of the match. That is as long as referees are brave enough to issue a second caution. It often starts as early as the 20th minute and goes on and on without anything being done to stop it and while there are managers like Eddie Howe who says he will use the “dark arts” if it means his side win, the game will descend into this routine of goalkeepers holding the ball for 15 seconds before getting rid of it or keepers not be ready to get on with the game after stoppages for substitutions/injuries/VAR and players still taking forever to leave the pitch when they are being taken off. Oh, and whatever happened to players being booked for making the VAR sign wanting a review or waving imaginary yellow cards ? That seems to have slipped the referees’ collective minds. Going back to VAR, when a decision is made, the ref makes the TV sign like you do in charades (which is a good analogy for much of VAR’s work). Is it all too easy for referees now ? They don’t have to be in a position where they are required to make a decision, as someone can always tell them that they should have or just ensure that they are not embarrassed by agreeing with their on-field decision anyway. How on earth did decisions get made before the introduction of this laborious process ? The time taken is a constant question asked about how VAR is carried out and surely, it comes down to the “clear and obvious” element of the original decision. Yes, offside is a matter of fact, but if that only become obvious after two minutes of line-drawing and getting Sherlock Holmes in with his magnifying glass, are we splitting hairs when it seems more complicated than splitting the atom ? Let’s set a maximum of 30 seconds to carry out the review. If no clear decision is possible, then get on with the match. Anyway, back to things THFC and the players who the club released in June. It was not a surprise for the first-teamers let go, as their contracts were up and Ivan Perisic had already gone on loan to Hajduk Split and Eric Dier to Bayern Munich, so it was a chance for them to get some game time before finding a new club (although Perisic had been injured, he was returning to a former club and preparing for Euro 2024). With Japhet Tanganga, new signings were pushing him down the pecking order and he needs to be playing, so a new club (and there seem quite a few interested in him) will give him that opportunity and Ryan Sessegnon will always be regarded as a “What if ?” buy. If he could have stayed fit, he could have been a great addition to the squad, with his pace and strength out wide and we really only got to see that a few times, because of his persistent hamstring injuries. I hope that he will be able to find a club where he can get fit, as it wasn’t his lack of application, but his body letting him down that perhaps was a result of his explosive speed taking it’s toll. Of the youngsters, Charlie Sayers had injury problems this year, while there were trials for Billy Heaps at Reading and Kieran Morgan at QPR towards the end of the season, but the release of Han Willcroft-King was out of the blue, as he was one tipped for stardom at an early stage, having been with the club since he was 6. Thankfully we have few players taking par tin the Euro 2024 tournament, so more will be able to arrive fresh for a full pre-season. Added to any new players coming in, it should be an interesting summer to see who we can attract to make further progress next season. Keep the faith. MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE Bruce Grove |